


five, four, three, two

by entitynim



Category: VIXX
Genre: Fluff, M/M, New Year's Eve AU, minor warning for some language and brief alcohol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-01-31 15:12:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18593845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entitynim/pseuds/entitynim
Summary: Hongbin's life is turned upside down by his hopeless friends and an anonymous person who claims to have a nice ass.





	five, four, three, two

**Author's Note:**

> Hi,  
> Slight disclaimer. I did the bare minimum research on game development, so please forgive what are probably many inaccuracies.
> 
>  
> 
> Prompt: Jaehwan posts a tweet on Hongbin’s behalf that quickly turns viral. “Looking for a hottie to kiss my best friend at the new year’s eve party. Requirement: a good ass”

“So, who are you and what do you do?”

“My name is Hongbin and I’m your boss,” Hongbin says to the camera, to Baekhyun standing behind the camera. The way that Baekhyun rolls his eyes and Sanghyuk snorts from his corner desk reflects how much influence he really has on the office, but there is no lie in his words.

“Okay, Your Excellency, would you mind telling our wonderful subscribers what you _actually_ do?”

The long answer is _too much_. Hongbin could spend hours talking about everything he does in a day, a week, for the little indie gaming company he and Jaehwan had started back in college. Somehow, doodling heroes and villains onto notebook paper in the library had evolved into a one room, square office space with three other people and expectations he’s sometimes not sure he can live up to. Some of the work he shoulders is unnecessary, but he’s a perfectionist and can’t help it. He loves every step of the process and wants to make sure everything they put out is high quality; from Sanghyuk’s plotlines and dialogue, to Jaehwan’s artwork, and Baekhyun’s blog and YouTube updates. The company is his baby and he can’t help wanting to be involved in it’s life.

But they are filming a short behind the scenes video and the outline Baekhyun emailed everyone had _keep it short!!!_ as the first bullet point, so Hongbin simply smiles and talks about the area he is solely in charge of; his strength and his nightmare – testing. This has been his world for the last few months with their newest game’s release date looming ahead in the second quarter of the upcoming year. Hours have been spent exploring every corner of every area, logging bugs and sending them to Chansik, waiting for him to correct and recode so Hongbin can do it all over again. It’s monotonous, and he has an entire night of it to look forward to.

He keeps the last part to himself and, instead, jokes to the camera about a bug that once respawned a boss dozens of times and made him lose ten years off his life. He’d thought Chansik had done it on purpose because Hongbin told him that his attacking patterns were becoming too predictable but– 

Baekhyun makes a slashing move at his throat to tell Hongbin to wrap it up, so he finishes by thanking everyone for enjoying their last release and hoping that they love the new one as well. The camera moves on and Hongbin looks at the timeline tacked to the wall beside him. It’s been turned into a bunch of strikethroughs and arrows thanks to an exhibition this coming weekend in Busan. They had thought long and hard over whether to apply for a booth this year, and ultimately the opportunity to showcase their next project to over 200,000 people had won out over any financial worries. The space wouldn't be large, they were a tiny company after all, but they were all hoping this new game would be their break out moment.

The last week had been a complete scramble to make sure everything was prepared and the best it could be, and everyone was running on their last reserves of energy.

They all needed a break. 

Baekhyun shuts the camera off and collapses into a chair at the conference table, a round little all-purpose thing they have sitting in the middle of the room. “My mom was right. Gaming isn’t a sustainable career. It’s an early ticket to the grave.” 

They all make soft noises of agreement from their desks.

“At least you get to go to the beach this weekend,” Jaehwan complains. “I can only sit here and draw a beach.”

“You guys really can’t come with us?” Sanghyuk asks, and makes a face when both Hongbin and Jaehwan shake their heads. They were too behind and it made sense to have Baekhyun and Sanghyuk handle the booth. Baekhyun took care of all their social media accounts and was a face their followers would recognize, and Sanghyuk had long ago finished writing the game script and was good at talking to people. Chansik would walk the exhibition and see what others were showcasing, so this left Hongbin and Jaehwan to stay and play catch up, or have a pity party, in Jaehwan’s case.

“We’ll bring you back souvenirs,” Chansik tips his head back in his chair and calls out to Jaehwan.

“Not on the company card.”

Chansik clicks his tongue at Hongbin, “Cheapskate.”

“Boss,” Hongbin corrects and, again, gets eyes rolled at him.

“Do we at least get to eat on the company card today?” Baekhyun asks while swaying from side to side in his chair. “Some of us are going to be up all night.”

Everyone turns to Hongbin with hopeful looks. This is what makes them not take his words very seriously, he knows, as he pulls the card out of his wallet and reluctantly waves it in the air for someone to take. Sanghyuk makes a triumphant noise and quickly runs over to grab it. It’s always him, willing to play delivery boy if it meant getting some fresh air and holding all the company’s money in his hand for a moment.

Sanghyuk knows most of their orders by heart now, but still has everyone write it down on paper. As soon as he’s out the door, the rest of them wheel their chairs over to the table and begin clearing everything off it. Hongbin’s always amazed at how everything in the office seems to find its way onto a table they use for meetings every week. He really should look into buying some shelving units, or a bigger table.

Some of the papers lying around contain scratched off song titles in Sanghyuk’s handwriting and it reminds Hongbin that he should contact Wonshik soon to make sure he is on track with the OST. Wonshik doesn’t exactly work for them, but he’s a friend from college who went into music production and Hongbin always commissions him to compose the music for their games. When Sanghyuk joined them last year, he’d taken an interest in it and Hongbin introduced the two. With any luck, Sanghyuk will be able to take that on in the future and Hongbin can save himself a little money. Wonshik’s gotten too popular and costly for his wallet these days.

“I want to go to Busan,” Jaehwan whines when he’s done cleaning the area in front of him, slouched in his chair. “I want to sit on the beach and watch Sanghyuk play in the sand and hold his hand while the sun sets.”

“Hold his hand? When he put his hand on your shoulder the other day you jumped and rolled your chair into the trash bin.” Hongbin was a gleeful witness to it all.

“I was focused on picking the right shade of green for a tree! I didn’t expect a bear paw to suddenly clamp down on me.”

“Sanghyuk likes surprising you,” Baekhyun shares. “He thinks it’s cute.”

Jaehwan colors and looks like he doesn’t know what to do with the information. “How would you even know that?”

Baekhyun makes a zipping motion across his lips and Hongbin hits him on the head with the stack of papers he’s still trying to relocate. They all know about the mutual crush the two have on each other, but its way more fun to watch them dance awkwardly around it. The office needs to have some kind of entertainment.

There’s a long pause as Jaehwan glances at the door and leans forward slowly. “I think I’m going to do it,” he whispers, unnecessarily.

“Do what?”

“Kiss him. At midnight. At his New Year’s Eve party.” Jaehwan nods throughout his declaration, as if he’s literally just decided it. Hongbin has been with Jaehwan long enough to know his track record of chickening out when it comes to making the first move, but Jaehwan is his best friend and this doesn’t seem to be the appropriate time for jokes anymore. At the lack of response from everyone, Jaehwan adds, “I’m serious! I don’t want to go through another year of this. A new year, a new me.”

“Good. That’s good!” Baekhyun reaches over to pat his hand. “Kissing at midnight is romantic too, as long as you’re not drunk and forget about it.”

“Please don’t get drunk,” Hongbin begs.

“Not totally drunk. Just one. Or two. Liquid courage, right?” Jaehwan laughs nervously and then has an abrupt change of heart. “I’m going to chicken out, aren’t I? You all know what I’m going to do, and you’ll all be _watching_ , and then I’ll panic and spend midnight hiding in the bathroom.”

“No, no, no, no. I’ll find someone to kiss too, if that’ll make you feel better. You won’t be alone,” Baekhyun promises.

“I’m going to be at a different party, so I won’t even be there,” Chansik adds, “but I’ll cross my fingers for you.”

Jaehwan turns to Hongbin, who still doesn’t believe any of this will really happen. “I can stay home if it’ll keep you from running away.” The only reason he was going to the party anyways was because Sanghyuk wouldn’t accept his reasons for declining.

“Not that! Do what Baekhyun’s going to do.”

Hongbin splutters, “What? Excuse me?”

“Now I regret not going,” Chansik murmurs, and Baekhyun rests his chin in his hands with rapt attention.

“It’s perfect!” The gears are turning in Jaehwan’s head and Hongbin wishes he could jam them up somehow. Would a keyboard to the back of the head work? “You’re the last person on earth who would kiss someone at midnight. If you do it and I don’t, then I would be the biggest dumbass on earth. If I _do_ do it, then that would mean you lose, and you hate losing more than anything, so you won’t chicken out, which means I _definitely_ won’t chicken out.”

Hongbin stares at him. “You’re already the biggest dumbass on earth for even suggesting this.”

“I agree with Jaehwan. It’s perfect,” Baekhyun chimes in.

“And makes sense. Competition is one of the biggest motivations.” Chansik smiles smugly at Hongbin.

He needs Sanghyuk to walk through that door, as soon as possible. This is what he gets for letting them walk all over him and dine on company money. “First of all, you’re dead to me. All of you. Second, I’m absolutely not going to go up to a random person and kiss them.”

“You really don’t know how this works,” Baekhyun laughs at him. “If you show up to the party at, say, eight, then you have four whole hours to romance someone.”

“Ro–” Hongbin can’t even fathom the word, let alone say it. “Me?”

“Maybe they’ll romance you instead.”

Hongbin points to himself and Baekhyun throws his hands in the air.

“Okay, we’ll help you find someone then.”

“I’ll ask my friends.” Jaehwan is already typing on his phone before he’s even finished speaking.

“I know your friends and I don’t want to kiss any of them.” Hongbin’s attempts to stop the conversation grow weaker. Where is Sanghyuk?

“Then I’ll ask on Twitter and they can pass it on to their friends.”

Hongbin opens his mouth but Jaehwan gives him that look, the one that ends all arguments and discussions and makes Hongbin wonder if Jaehwan is his kryptonite. His face crumples, his shoulders deflate, and he makes Hongbin feel like he’s robbing Jaehwan of all the happiness in his life.

Chansik nudges his leg under the table and leans over to whisper, “He’ll be too busy stressing out about Sanghyuk to even pay attention to you, so just let it go. You can leave the party early and he’ll never know.”

He’s probably right. Hongbin knows all of Jaehwan’s friends, and their friends, and they would never take it seriously. At worst, Hongbin could hang out with them until it was safe to slip away. This was one thing he had no problem losing to Jaehwan at. He shakes his head and concedes, “If this is going to magically help you kiss Sanghyuk, then fine, have at it.”

Jaehwan puts his phone down with a smile. “Done. Thank you, best friend in the whole world. I love you.”

“Please don’t chicken out. I need you to be Sanghyuk’s problem to deal with instead of mine,” Hongbin mumbles uncomfortably, even though a part of him is pleased. Jaehwan is happy; crisis averted.

“I will always be your problem.”

Sanghyuk walks in the door, finally, with bags in both hands and saves Hongbin from the finger hearts and air kisses Jaehwan was about to launch his way. He can at least take solace in the way Jaehwan falls back into shyness and tells himself that Chansik is right, Hongbin has nothing to worry about for New Year’s Eve.

 

 

 

 

 **uwu ♡ countdown to new year’s D-53** @jaehwany0406 ⋅ 1m  
Looking for a hottie to kiss my best friend @RedBeans93 at @HSangHyuk’s New Year’s party. Requirement: a good ass.

 

 

 

 

There is one forgotten variable that shows up around four in the morning with a like and a retweet and not a care in the world for Hongbin’s plans.

Wonshik.

Wonshik, who thinks the only thing cuter in the world than his dog is Jaehwan.

Wonshik, who likes and retweets every! single! thing! that Jaehwan posts.

Wonshik, who is somewhat well known and very well connected and retweets that Hongbin is looking for a hottie to his 50,000 followers.

 

 

 

 

Hongbin stares at his phone when he wakes up late in the morning, not knowing if he’s still dreaming or if this is really happening. His lock screen is overflowing with notifications – new Twitter followers, mentions, an extremely unhelpful Discord message from Sanghyuk of popcorn emojis. He rubs his eyes, but everything is still there, staring back at him. Not a dream.

“What on earth,” he mumbles to himself as he sits up and unlocks his phone.

Another notification pops up at the top of the screen, a like on a tweet from someone Hongbin’s never heard of but who apparently felt like tagging him in something. He ignores it and goes to Discord instead to reply to Sanghyuk.

 

 **kongbini** Today at 9:56 AM  
??? 

**hsh** Today at 10:02 AM  
ur famous bro

 **kongbini** Today at 10:02 AM  
no shit bro  
why?

 **hsh** Today at 10:03 AM  
ur hot n looking for luv?  
idk if twt is the best place to look  
but gl

 

Sanghyuk’s never helpful when Hongbin needs him to be.

More confused than before, and receiving more notifications, he switches over to Twitter and turns those off to at least give his phone a break. The message tab has a blue dot on it that scares him, so he avoids it and looks at the mess of notifications instead. For some reason, people have gone through his old tweets, liking and retweeting even the most mundane ones, like the fist emoji he tweeted at Chansik that none of them could possibly understand or have any interest in.

There are only three things that have the most activity on them though, and they are the source of Hongbin’s overnight fame.

The first is from Jaehwan, and one look at his account name is enough to trigger the memories to play back in Hongbin’s head in a horrible, regretful, slow way. A piece of him dies at the words “hottie” and “good ass” being associated with his account, and he wants to bury himself under ten feet of dirt and have Sanghyuk pour concrete on top of him because Jaehwan included a picture of the two of them so people can associate his face with those words as well. “Don’t smile,” he tells his past self in the image, “this picture will be used for evil someday.”

The actual catalyst to Hongbin’s situation isn’t Jaehwan though, at least not directly. Its karma, in the form of Wonshik, who left a seemingly innocent reply to Jaehwan’s tweet – a thumb’s up – but only after retweeting it to all his followers first. Hongbin doesn’t even have to look at Wonshik’s timeline to know he did. He’s made fun of Wonshik for it so many times, for so many years, and he can’t believe the thought of it happening didn’t occur to him at all. Wonshik probably thought he was being _helpful_ by sharing it with all of the producers, rappers, and idol fans who follow him because of his music. Hongbin wants to send an angry text but how is he supposed to do that to someone who was endearingly oblivious when it came to his love life? He sends the angry text to Jaehwan instead and tells him to delete the tweet immediately or else he’ll tell Sanghyuk everything.

The most puzzling part of Hongbin’s notifications comes from a reply to Jaehwan’s post that includes his account, by someone he’s never heard of before. Whoever it is uploaded a picture, and while there are other replies that do the same, this one actually has hundreds of likes on it, which is both alarming and intriguing.

 

 **CHA • HAK • YEON** @CHA_NNNNN ⋅ 3h  
Replying to @jaehwany0406 @RedBeans93 and 2 others  
No need to look further. I meet the requirement!

 

Hongbin huffs at the boldness. If he were actually picking someone from the replies, it would not be this person, purely out of spite.

The picture preview hints that it was taken in a large mirror at some ballet or dance studio, judging by the golden wood flooring and emptiness of the room in the reflection, and it’s only natural to be curious about why nearly four hundred people agree, so he loads the full picture. This person has angled themselves sideways in the mirror to show off their figure and whether it’s all real or just helped out by the canned lighting and shadows, their ass definitely meets Jaehwan’s requirement. Unfortunately for them, the hat they have on and the way their face is lowered just slightly to hide their identity doesn’t meet Hongbin’s unattainable, nonexistent standards. _Coward_ , he thinks and clicks out of the picture.

He mutes both Jaehwan and Anonymous’ tweets so the notifications can quiet down and changes his name to _Not Interested_ in case anyone goes to view his account. Exhausted only thirty minutes into the day, he falls back onto his pillow and regrets ever waking up.

 

 

 

 

A message from Anonymous is sitting in Hongbin’s direct messages when he gets the courage to open them up later in the evening. Most of the requests he deletes without looking at, but since he is already somewhat familiar with this name, he curiously opens it.

 

Hey, sorry to bother you.  
I thought about this after I replied to  
that tweet and your name change  
has me thinking of it again.  
Was someone pranking you?  
12:28 PM

 

Hongbin will at least give them points for not taking Jaehwan’s tweet at face value. He doesn’t mind giving them a kind, formal rejection.

 

It wasn’t a prank but I’m honestly  
not looking for anyone.  
My friend deleted it.  
Sorry.  
8:12 PM

 

Ah, I see. No problem^^  
8:15 PM

 

 

 

 

The Twitter Incident manages to fade to the back of Hongbin’s mind throughout the next two weeks and he very nearly succeeds in pretending it never happened, until Sanghyuk brings it up while they are playing Apex Legends late one night.

“I think you should give Hakyeon a chance.”

“Who?” Hongbin asks, focused only on the scramble for equipment and supplies.

“Hakyeon. Twitter. Ass that fits your requirements.”

“Jaehwan’s requirements,” Hongbin corrects him, and curses under his breath because he remembers the whole debacle now and he’s also being shot at.

“Jaehwan likes nice asses?”

“I don’t know. Go ask him.”

Sanghyuk mumbles something that Hongbin can’t make out through their Discord call and doesn’t care enough about to have repeated. It’s not like Sanghyuk would ever have the guts to actually ask Jaehwan, nor will Jaehwan have the guts to actually confess to Sanghyuk, so Hongbin can play that card for the rest of his life.

Their teammate gets killed and leaves the game, and Hongbin and Sanghyuk only make it through three squads before they are killed as well. They’re going through character selections for the next match when Sanghyuk restarts the conversation.

“I still think you should give Hakyeon a chance.”

Hongbin frowns, though it can’t be seen by anyone. “Why are you saying his name so casually? Do you know him?”

“Wonshik is friends with him and introduced us the other day. He’s nice.”

“Don’t tell me you invited him to the party now.” He’s the jump master and picks a spot on the map for them to land at.

“I did.” Sanghyuk sounds unapologetic.

"And what does that have to do with me? I told him I’m not interested.”

“I’m not saying to hook up with him. I’m just saying you can hang out with him and keep him company.”

“Why wouldn’t he hang out with Wonshik?”

Sanghyuk goes quiet, long enough that Hongbin glances over to his other monitor at Discord and sees that Sanghyuk has muted his microphone.

“Are you cursing at me? I write your paychecks, you know.”

Sanghyuk comes back with an unconvincing, “I was sneezing.”

“Right.”

“Wonshik is probably going to show up late, so can you just hang out with Hakyeon for a few hours so he’s not alone? Please? I won’t complain if you leave after that.”

“That doesn’t really seem like a fair tradeoff.”

“Wonshik will give you a discount for the OST. If he doesn’t, then you can take the discount from my paycheck.”

Hongbin is quiet as he thinks over Sanghyuk’s suggestion, and peers through the scope of his gun to look for the squad he has a feeling is around somewhere. Jaehwan has been giving him sad looks ever since he deleted the tweet; somehow convinced that because Hongbin bailed on him he would never have a relationship with Sanghyuk. Finding someone to hang out with for a few hours and leaving early was the original sub plan in the first place, so really, Hongbin would just be back to how things would have been had Wonshik never interfered.

Most importantly, he would save some money.

“Okay,” he concedes. “Wonshik better come through though, for your sake.” He would never actually dock Sanghyuk’s pay over a ridiculous thing like this.

Sanghyuk cheers, even as his shield and health bars dwindle rapidly and his name turns red. Great, now Hongbin has to heal him. “I’ll tell Hakyeon you’ll message him later.”

“Me? Why do I have to message him first? I’m the one doing everyone favors.”

 

 

 

 

Hi  
Sanghyuk asked me to keep you  
company at his party.  
2:08 AM

 

If it’s not going to trouble you…  
You don’t have to if you really don’t  
want to though.  
I don’t want to bother you  
(again lol)  
8:13 AM

 

It's fine.  
Really.  
Just not sure I understand his thinking.  
I’m a stranger just like everyone else  
at the party would be?  
10:55 AM

 

For now... but that can change.  
We have a month^^  
I’m Hakyeon btw  
10:57 AM

 

Hongbin.  
Do you want to move this to kkt?  
11:01 AM

 

Hakyeon adds him on KakaoTalk and messages him first, and Hongbin spends a good while scrutinizing his profile picture. It’s yet another unidentifying shot, but this time a faraway picture of him walking on a beach. He changes Hakyeon’s name to _Anonymous Coward_ because he is a petty person, and feels a little satisfaction when he sees it displayed above Hakyeon’s message.

 

 

 

 

Hakyeon is a very open person, Hongbin finds.

There isn’t a day that goes by where Hakyeon doesn’t message him in some way, whether it’s in the morning while he’s waiting in line for coffee, or in the late evening when he’s riding the bus home. He’s also patient and doesn’t expect Hongbin to reply right away, especially at night when Hongbin gets easily distracted and lets the hours roll by without realizing it. In the past, people have given up on talking to him and he’s had friendships drift away because of it, but Hakyeon just replies with smiles or stickers and continues the conversation as if it had never been interrupted in the first place.

Hongbin learns that Hakyeon is a few years older and loves to make DIY videos and knows Wonshik through his best friend, Taekwoon, who met Wonshik at a musician’s boot camp one summer. Hakyeon, himself, is a choreographer and boastfully sends Hongbin several idol group dance practice videos that he’s worked on, at least one of them recognizable and on Hongbin’s playlist rotation. The dance studio in the infamous picture is his own, something he bought with his first big paycheck and is extremely proud of.

In between these tidbits are questions directed toward Hongbin, who is reluctant to open up at first but finds himself sharing things unprompted after a week of daily conversation. Hakyeon is just easy to talk to and sounds genuinely interested in Hongbin’s unexciting life. It makes him wonder why Sanghyuk even asked Hongbin to keep Hakyeon company, when he seemed more than capable of making friends in a room of strangers. At least New Year’s Eve should be somewhat enjoyable. Hongbin might even stay through midnight.

 

 

 

 

In the middle of December, the first run through of OST tracks are sent for Hongbin to look at and critique. They’d gone over some samples months before and Hongbin had given Wonshik a general idea of what he was looking for in each one, but he hadn’t yet heard them in full so he excitedly stays late at the office one night to listen to them.

Everyone’s already left, so Hongbin turns the volume up on his headphones to immerse himself in the music and sits with his feet on his desk and head leaned back against the chair. The songs come in a broad range, from calming and light, to frantic and heavy. “I want people to feel rage,” he’d told Wonshik at one point during a meeting and he closes his eyes now to picture the music influencing the most intense moments of gameplay, where players would feel the most pressure and panic and hopefully become their own downfall. It was a solid eight out of ten on his frustration meter, he decides, and notes it in his reply. Maybe increasing the tempo at points to match people’s rising blood pressure would bring it up to a ten.

He pulls up the master copy of the game outline and swivels around in his chair, tapping his fingers on the arm of it and staring up at the speckled ceiling as he thinks about the best places to assign tracks. Some are an obvious choice and others could fit well into several spots. He puts question marks by the ones he’s really not sure of, knowing the others will give their own input and that replaying some of those areas might change his mind.

From time to time, his phone lights up with messages from Hakyeon, who is also pulling a late-nighter at the studio.

 

 _Anonymous Coward_  
Still working?    7:56 PM

 

Yeah.  
You?    7:56 PM

 

 _Anonymous Coward_  
Just left.  
I’m starving.  
Have you eaten yet?    7:59 PM

 

Not yet.  
I’ll eat on the way home.    8:00 PM

 

 _Anonymous Coward_  
I’ll bring you something instead^^ What’s the address?    8:02 PM

 

Hongbin rereads the message several times to see if it changes, but it doesn’t. Hakyeon is still asking for an address. He finds no real reason not give it, other than the messy state of the office, as long as it’s not too out of Hakyeon’s way, which he stipulates when he sends the address. Hakyeon only says he’ll be there within the hour and Hongbin supposes that’s that.

It’s probably good that their first meeting is taking place here, in Hongbin’s comfort zone, and not forced and preplanned at the party. Hongbin has things that he can show off and explain if they run into any awkward silence and has the building’s security team saved in his phone if Hakyeon is not the friendly, kind person he’s been in the weeks Hongbin’s known him. He probably is, Sanghyuk wouldn’t lie about something like that.

He finishes up with his notes on the song tracks and sends his email off to Wonshik before putting his desk back into some kind of working order. The others’ desks he leaves mostly alone and only turns over or covers up anything particularly spoilerish, not that he thought Hakyeon would know a spoiler if he saw one. He was only a casual gamer, Hongbin’d learned through their conversations, one who didn’t really play much anymore because of how busy his career had become. From what it sounded like, Hakyeon wouldn’t really be interested in their style of games anyway.

When the door finally buzzes, Hongbin has the poorly timed thought that he maybe should have taken the time to look at Hakyeon’s Twitter account and find a picture that wasn’t artfully from a distance. He actually has no idea what he looks like, aside from the waist down. His hand falters at the security panel because he hadn’t thought about that unfortunate introduction for a while, and now, when Hakyeon’s about to be standing in front of him in the flesh, is the worst time to remember.

The security camera feed is a bit grainy in nighttime mode, but Hongbin can see someone waving into it with plastic bags in both hands and a hoodie pulled up over their head. Typical, still mysteriously anonymous, he laughs on the inside, humored though, instead of annoyed or creeped out. He unlocks the main door for Hakyeon and waits just outside their office door in the hallway for him.

Hongbin’s first thought of Hakyeon is that he looks comfortable, wearing joggers and sneakers, with the strings of his hoodie swinging with his movements. His footsteps are quiet in the hallway, something that must have been acquired through dancing and being light on his feet. Hongbin’s been told he scuffles his shoes a lot when he’s tired, but Hakyeon looks relaxed and functional even though he’s been dancing for hours.

“Hey,” Hakyeon greets when he’s close enough and, oh, Hongbin was not expecting a warm, slightly husky tone.

“Hey,” he answers, after a slight pause, and steps aside, one arm gesturing to the office. “Come on in.”

The scent of chicken hits him when Hakyeon passes by and he’s suddenly, very painfully, aware of how hungry he is and very, very grateful that Hakyeon has brought him food. He grabs Jaehwan’s chair for Hakyeon to sit in and pulls his own up to the table while Hakyeon opens the bags he has brought and sorts out some cartons and bottles of water and cola.

“I really shouldn’t eat this so late at night, but my friends and I used to get chicken after dance classes and I felt a little nostalgic tonight,” Hakyeon explains as he sits down and pulls the hood down off his head. The very ends of his hair are wet and stick to his forehead, completing the flushed, worn out vibe he has going on. The casualness of it all makes Hongbin feel like he isn’t meeting someone for the first time and is just having dinner with a friend.

“Once in a while won’t hurt. You’ll probably dance it all off tomorrow anyway.”

“And then some. The agency wants a finished video by the end of the week. I guess they moved up their timeline for the group’s comeback and need to choose choreo before the month ends, which sucks. One of my dancers is in Japan until Wednesday.”

Hongbin nods while chewing on a piece of chicken. He’d heard, at length, how difficult it had been for Hakyeon to find people available in December to learn the routine and commit to a demo video. Most of his friends had their own projects they were working on and it took time, even for a veteran dancer, to learn choreo that Hakyeon was constantly adjusting and nitpicking at. “They’ll be back in time, don’t worry.”

“I don’t suppose you dance at all, in case they aren’t?” Hakyeon asks with a laugh, searching through a carton of seasoned chicken for an ideal piece.

“If you don’t want the agency to choose your demo, then I guess I would be a good fit for it.” The only kind of dancing Hongbin does is shoulder wagging with his headphones on. Hakyeon probably doesn’t have that in mind.

Hakyeon makes a noise like he doesn’t believe him, though Hongbin really doesn’t know why. “Wonshik can probably scrape it together if needed. He’s good for some things, I guess.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“Go ahead,” Hakyeon shrugs, uncaring. “He’s deeply in debt with me anyway.”

Hongbin raises an eyebrow but doesn’t ask. He has a tally going of all the favors people owe him and plans to cash in big on it, too.

“So what are you working on that’s making you stay so late? Or is it a secret?”

“It’s kind of a secret. It’s just the soundtrack for the game we are working on. I was listening to it for the first time and trying to figure out where everything should go.”

"Ooh,” Hakyeon leans forward with interest written all over his face. It’s so easy for Hongbin to picture all of the stickers and emojis that Hakyeon sends him now, easy to picture Hakyeon making all of those faces as he’s reading Hongbin’s messages. “Can I listen to a bit?”

He shouldn’t, has told the others in the past they couldn’t share anything beyond what they teased on social media. They’re not here though. “Maybe ten seconds.”

“A minute?”

“This isn’t negotiable.”

“I guess I brought you food for no reason…” Hakyeon trails off while sweeping all the food cartons towards him and away from Hongbin with his arm.

“I’m sharing spoilers that not even the other people in this office have heard yet! You should be grateful to get ten seconds.”

A deep sigh, and Hakyeon removes his arm. “Fine. I’ll accept your humble gift.”

Hongbin retakes the carton he had been eating from and hoards it. “Just eat and then I’ll show it to you.”

Despite the both of them having gone hours without eating, they’re unable to finish off everything Hakyeon brought. The leftovers are boxed back up and put in one bag, and the trash in the other for Hongbin to take out when he leaves. He moves their chairs over to his desk and lets Hakyeon sit down while he reopens everything on his desktop.

Hakyeon likes mellow, chill music, he thinks, remembering a conversation they’d had the other week about music preferences, and sharing that one in common. Deciding on one of the calmer, beginning tracks, he passes his headphones over to Hakyeon and waits for him to get situated with them before pressing play.

There's a smile on Hakyeon's face as the first few seconds play and it makes Hongbin nervous. He’s used to seeing people’s thoughts and reactions to their work on Twitch streams, but he’s never sat so close, watching the reaction of someone he knows personally, and he finds himself taking note of Hakyeon’s every expression to see if it’s good or bad, does he like it or does he not? The music is Wonshik’s creation, but using Hongbin’s vision, and he feels just as nervous as he does when he checks Steam reviews on the first day of releases.

Twenty seconds.

Hakyeon leans his head back in the chair and closes his eyes. He sways his head a little and that should be a good sign, hopefully is a good sign. Hongbin pokes his arm to make sure he’s not just falling asleep and gets swatted at.

Thirty seconds.

He watches the time tick away and lets it reach a minute before stopping, not that a minute really changes much considering it’s designed to be repetitive and loop until the area is completed. In fact, ten seconds really would have been enough to get the gist of it. He was being practical in his original offer. “What do you think?”

“It’s great! I really like it,” Hakyeon beams at him and takes the headphones off.

The words make Hongbin feel relieved and happy and he turns to his desktop to close things down before it shows on his face. “It’s all Wonshik, really. I just told him what we were looking for.”

“If it matches the game you’re working on, then I’m sure the finished product will be amazing.”

Hongbin hunches into himself a little, pleased. “I guess.”

“You let me listen to more than ten seconds,” Hakyeon points out and Hongbin doesn’t need to look at him to know the teasing tone matches his face.

“I decided that the input of an outsider was valuable.”

"If you need any more _valuable_ opinions, then let me know.”

“Depends on how many more meals you bring me.” The words are spoken before Hongbin has really thought through how they could be interpreted. He’d had a nice time talking in person with Hakyeon and was open to doing it again sometime. He wasn’t flirting or anything equally awkward and out of character.

“As many as you want.” Hakyeon’s smile could be friendly, or it could be more than friendly.

Hongbin spends the rest of the night wondering which it is, and which he wants it to be.

 

 

 

 

 _Anonymous Coward_  
Look at what I bought^^    6:34 PM

 

The picture Hakyeon attaches is a screenshot of Steam, of a preorder receipt for their new game, to be exact. Hongbin doesn’t remember ever giving him the title, or their company name, so he must have gotten it from somewhere else. Wonshik, probably.

 

You didn’t have to spend money just to listen to Wonshik’s music  
I’ll send you the tracks after the release if you want  
Get a refund    6:37 PM

 

 _Anonymous Coward_  
Idiot  
I bought it because of you  
You’ve been working so hard on it  
Just accept my support^^    6:38 PM

 

Hongbin lowers his phone and stares at the wall in front of him, drumming his fingers on his keyboard just to hear the loud clicking sound they make. How was he supposed to accept something like that? He has several gaming friends who don’t even go to the trouble of playing his games, and here is Hakyeon who only casually plays and has only known Hongbin a month but brings Hongbin food late at night and buys a game he knows nothing about just to be supportive.

 

Okay…  
Thanks    6:43 PM

 

 _Anonymous Coward_  
You’ll help me if I get stuck though, right?  
What does a “rage game” mean??    6:45 PM

 

Hongbin laughs quietly and tries to ignore the warm feeling of affection that is taking root in him.

 

 

 

 

Everything at the office slows down around Christmas and they all take a few days to rest and visit their families.

Hongbin hasn’t been home since September but he talks to his parents and sisters often enough that there isn’t much to catch up on when he arrives. He settles easily into his old bedroom, untouched from when he moved out, despite the amount of times his parents have talked about turning it into a guest or hobby room. The figurines lining his desk are a little dusty so he gives them a good cleaning, along with his bookshelves and old television and game consoles. He goes to sleep early, full from a large dinner, and free from the stress of work.

He spends the second day lazily sprawled out on his bed watching old Tooniverse shows on his phone, binging series after series that he hasn’t seen for many years but still knows the words of by heart. It’s like he’s ten years old again; being surrounded by all his things and hearing the chatter and activity of everyone else puttering from room to room. It feels familiar and comforting, even though he’s been away and living in his own apartment for a long time now.

Sometime in the afternoon, the episode he’s on gets paused by an incoming call, Hakyeon’s name flashing on the screen, and Hongbin answers it.

“Hey?”

“Merry Christmas!” Hakyeon’s voice is warm and Hongbin is brought out of his nostalgic bubble by the newest familiar and comforting sound in his life.

“Merry Christmas. Did the kids like the gifts?” Hongbin had suffered through link after link of potential Christmas gifts Hakyeon wanted to buy his nieces and nephews; talking him out of things that would only be played with for a short while and being talked away from practical gifts that were “no fun,” as Hakyeon had put it.

“They did! I think we did a good job picking them out. My sisters said to thank you.”

Hongbin rolls onto his back and throws an arm over his eyes, withering internally. Why on earth was Hakyeon talking about him with his family? “You should have just taken credit for it.”

“Nope, it was a joint effort.” Hakyeon is unyielding and Hongbin knows better than to argue by now. “Are you heading back tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Probably sometime in the afternoon.”

Hakyeon hums into the phone. “Do you want to meet up for dinner? I want to give you your present.”

“My present?” he asks with dread. He doesn’t have anything for Hakyeon. He is _awful_ at buying people presents, Hakyeon should know this. “I don’t have anything for you, though…”

“That’s fine. I’m not giving you a gift so that I can get one too. Just accept it.”

Hongbin is growing to hate those words. He doesn’t want to be the one who takes and never gives. Maybe his sisters could help him find something before he leaves, even if it involves divulging why and for whom. The worst they could do is tease him for the rest of his life, and they already have plenty of ways to do that.

“Are you busy?” Hakyeon asks, when his silence lasts for too long.

“No, sorry, just thinking.”

“Can you help me choose some pictures for Instagram? I have a few I can’t decide on.”

Instagram. Hongbin had it installed for a week or two because Jaehwan and Sanghyuk were constantly taking pictures and videos around the office and posting them, but then he didn’t see a point in keeping it when he rarely took pictures of himself. He isn’t the best judge of Instagram aesthetic, but then again, he also didn’t know anything about buying children’s gifts and that apparently turned out alright. “Sure, send them over.”

The pictures come in one by one; Hakyeon plastering a gift bow onto his niece’s forehead while she laughs; Hakyeon and his nephew with their chins on the table and whip cream mustaches above their lips; Hakyeon in an oversized scarf, blowing a cloud into existence in the chilly air. It’s a side profile shot again. Hongbin is learning that Hakyeon likes these kinds of long-distance photos. “The scenery is the main focus, I’m just a part of it,” he had once explained. More pictures come through and Hongbin wonders how Hakyeon expects him to give any input when every one of them looks spectacular.

“Choose three of them. Four, if you’re feeling it.”

“Um,” Hongbin draws out, nervous to choose on the spot. “The first three, and maybe the fifth.”

“Good,” Hakyeon agrees, and Hongbin feels like he’s advanced past stage one victoriously. For a moment. “Which one should go first?”

His eyes are drawn back to the third picture. Hakyeon’s profile is lovely, the more Hongbin sees and pays attention to it. The way he has his head tipped back accentuates his long neck, which peeks out above the red scarf he’s wearing. The red color visibly pops with the black pea coat and gray surroundings, and Hongbin kind of wishes he had been there to see it in person, to maybe take the picture, or just watch Hakyeon fuss over the perfect spot to stand in, the distance of the camera, the way he should hold himself.

“None of them?”

“What? No, the third. The picture of just you should go first.”

“Good point. The kids shouldn’t have their faces out in the open like that.”

That’s not at all why Hongbin chose that to go first, but he doesn’t correct.

Hakyeon chats with him while he’s uploading the pictures, asking him about his time at home and talking about how quickly the end of the year is coming. Hongbin can’t believe the party is a week away. The dread of it has long worn off, now that Hakyeon has become a part of his daily routine and is no longer a stranger he has to find a way to talk up for a few hours. He’s still named _Anonymous Coward_ on KakaoTalk, but it’s mostly out of amusement and irony now.

They hang up when one of the kids invades the conversation and demands Hakyeon’s attention, and Hongbin saves the pictures he’s been sent before minimizing the app. It’s curiosity that has him hesitating in the app store and finally reinstalling Instagram. His password had been something nonsensical, he remembers, so he doesn’t bother trying to figure it out and resets it, making the new one also nonsensical because he has no plans of actually keeping the app for more than a day.

Wonshik follows way too many people, so Hongbin tries his luck with Sanghyuk’s account but can’t find anyone resembling Hakyeon in his list of followers. A plain search yields too many results, so he goes back to Wonshik with a sigh and thumbs through the list, one by one by one, until he finally comes across achahakyeon, who predictably has his physical profile as his Instagram profile. He opens Hakyeon’s account up and sees the red scarf picture in the first thumbnail and it makes him smile and feel irrationally prideful because he choose that. He presses the heart before he can think too deeply about it.

Hakyeon must update at least once a week, there are so many pictures. Pictures of him standing in his studio mirror alone, standing with his idol groups in other studios, but mostly pictures of him outside in every season and under every kind of scenery. They’re artful and classy and so Hakyeon and just… _pretty_ is all Hongbin can think of, over and over and over again as he scrolls through.

Halfway down, he stops. There’s a cluster of posts that are screencaps from videos, YouTube links in the descriptions, and they are quite clearly Hakyeon, but not the warm and friendly Hakyeon that he knows. This is Hakyeon looking straight into the camera with eyes that are heavily made up and colored lights dancing off his face. Hongbin has only ever seen Hakyeon’s dances, not Hakyeon himself dancing, and he’s curious, so curious.

He scrolls back to the top of Hakyeon’s account and follows the YouTube link he remembers seeing up there, having thought it was just the DIY videos Hakyeon has talked about. While there are some of those, and also some vlogs that Hongbin might need to go back to watch someday, the rest of the videos are of Hakyeon dancing; an assortment of ones in the studio wearing comfortable clothing and a few that look to be stage performances. Since those were the ones that caught his eye, Hongbin clicks on the stage performances, starting with the most recent, over a year ago.

The camera is set up somewhere in the front row of some midsize end stage; lights dark at first and then changing to soft red spotlights. Watching Hakyeon dance is not at all what he had imagined, although he thinks he should have expected it because it’s not too dissimilar from the idol choreography he was shown. Hakyeon clearly had a style of dancing and performing that he expected to be replicated by the people he worked with. Graceful, is the word Hongbin thinks of the most as he watches video after video of performances, going back several years. Sensual, is another word that a tiny part of him whispers quietly whenever Hakyeon looks into the camera; a word that Hongbin dismisses but somehow keeps creeping back into his thoughts. Hakyeon on stage and Hakyeon in real life is confidence, Hongbin is learning, whether it’s smirking into a camera because he knows he’s captured someone’s attention or telling a random stranger on Twitter that they don’t need to look any further than him and his nice ass.

Hongbin feels caught in his pull, like Hakyeon is a sun and Hongbin’s a planet helplessly orbiting him and earning a few hours of sunshine and attention each day and always left wanting just a little more when he leaves. He puts his phone down and notices its fallen dark outside the window. He should go out and see what the plan for dinner is, if he needs to help, but he delays and stares at the posters on the wall instead and wonders what sides of Hakyeon there are that he has yet to learn about.

 

 

 

 

Hongbin comes back into his room much later, after eating and playing a card game, and finds three notifications waiting on his phone.

 

achahakyeon commented: “Cute^^”

achahakyeon liked your post.

achahakyeon started following you.

 

He doesn’t even know which picture would constitute as “cute” on his account; is a little afraid to find out. He can feel his ears warming, which is ridiculous because he’s alone in his room and there’s nobody to be embarrassed in front of. He tosses his phone to the side and rolls over to bury his face into the pillow. There’s a drumming in his ears that is foreign, and it takes a moment for him to work out that it’s just his heart beating a little faster than usual, over a silly little word like “cute.” People like Jaehwan are cute, and Sanghyuk on a good day, not Hongbin. He thought Hakyeon had more sense than that.

It’s possible Hongbin had posted a picture of someone else, or a picture with someone else, so he picks his phone back up and follows the notification to its source. The picture is, unfortunately, of him alone, nothing remarkable from what he can see, just himself in front of a restaurant wall waiting for food to be delivered to the table.

 

Cute^^

 

The words blink up at him.

He stares.

He thinks about taking another picture of the same caliber, just to see if it gets the same response.

An experiment, he tells himself.

A crush, the drumming in his ears says.

 

 

 

 

The week goes by in a blur and all he can think about is New Year’s Eve, and he finds that when he thinks of New Year’s Eve, all he can think about is the reason he met Hakyeon in the first place.

And when he starts thinking of that reason, he finds that he can’t stop.

 

 

 

 

Hongbin is not a party person.

Being stuck in an apartment with too many people and club music playing on loop is not the ideal way he would ring in a new year, was one of his reasons for initially declining the whole thing in the first place. But he is there, as he promised he’d be.

Sanghyuk shares the apartment with two other people, whose friends are also milling around, and seated space is hard to come by so Hongbin hasn’t budged from the couch all night for fear he would never get it back. Next to him is Hakyeon, who has been wedged against his side for almost three hours and keeps leaning over to talk directly into his ear in order to be heard above the noise. In the fifty-three days they’ve known each other (he counts the infamous tweet now), this is by far the closest into each other’s personal bubbles they have been. It’s really difficult for Hongbin to concentrate on anything being said when Hakyeon’s voice has gradually lowered in volume and increased in huskiness as the night’s worn on. Hongbin’s ears have been burning red for so long they should have turned to ash by now. Hakyeon has to have noticed the color and was choosing to do it on purpose.

To say Hakyeon looks good would be the understatement of the century. Hakyeon looks _fantastic_ and Hongbin can’t escape that fact, whether he’s looking at him or watching his leg bounce in time to the music. It’s not like Hakyeon’s wearing expensive clothing or heavily made up or putting in any more effort than any other time Hongbin has seen him in person. Hongbin is just _aware_ of him now; aware of the way Hakyeon’s gaze never breaks eye contact while they are talking, or trying to talk; aware of the way Hakyeon has one arm around the back of the couch, not touching Hongbin’s shoulders but telling everyone who looks over at them that Hongbin is the one who has his full attention right now and not them. Hongbin is so painfully aware of Hakyeon’s presence that every tick of the clock towards midnight has him thinking of only one thing.

Hongbin wants to kiss him.

But not here.

Here would be cheap and gimmicky. Hongbin doesn’t want to kiss Hakyeon just because it’s midnight and some kind of tradition. Hongbin wants to kiss _him_ , whether it’s before midnight or after, in some place as classy and special as Hakyeon is. Internally, he makes a face at himself and the lame words that have started frequenting his vocabulary. How had he gone from being _Not Interested_ , to being _Very Interested_ , with subtext _Romance Included_? Or maybe _Romance Attempted_ was a better way to put it.

He’s been trying to think of an alternative place to go for about an hour now, but is disappointed to find that the world he knows is very limited and very much not romantic. His apartment is a mess of mismatched hand-me-down furniture from family and friends that he’s never thought to replace, and while he keeps it clean and free of clutter, the thought of their first kiss being in the same place he eats and showers and sleeps feels just as low effort as a party. The office is the only other place he really spends time at and is a hard pass, which leaves him… with nothing.

Someone shouts that it’s eleven and cheers erupt. Hongbin’s brow furrows, disappointed that life has brought him this kind of opportunity, while his choices and habits have left him with lackluster ways to fulfill it.

“Do you want to go somewhere else?”

He startles at the question. Hakyeon is looking at him inquisitively, unsure smile on his face, and this is why Hongbin is now _Very Interested_. Maybe one day they will finish each other’s sentences as well. He nods quickly and stands up from the couch, offering a hand out to Hakyeon, who takes it. It’s weird how such a small gesture can make him nervous. He’s held Jaehwan’s hand, and Wonshik’s, and Sanghyuk’s before, but Hakyeon’s hand wound around his brings with it anticipation and worry and hope.

Their coats had been left with Sanghyuk when they arrived and Hongbin leads them around people and furniture to get to the bedroom where Sanghyuk presumably put everything. Hakyeon is still holding onto his hand and this earns them more than a few stares. Baekhyun shoots finger guns at him from where he’s chatting up three people and this decision to kiss Hakyeon is giving him unfounded confidence, because he feels smug and pleased that everyone is a witness to Hakyeon leaving with him. Or is it the other way around, and he is leaving with Hakyeon? Technically, Hakyeon is the one who asked the question. That should mean Hongbin is off the hook for conjuring up a place they should go to.

He puts his hand on the door to open it but is stopped by Hakyeon, who knocks first. Right, they were at a party. Some people are not as classy as he is.

He’s taken aback when the door actually opens from the inside and Sanghyuk appears in front of them. He’s fully clothed, to Hongbin’s relief. For a very brief moment he’d wondered if Jaehwan had actually, and already, worked up the nerve and he was interrupting them from something he didn’t want to see.

“Coats?” Hakyeon asks, hopefully.

Sanghyuk raises an eyebrow and looks between the two of them, but motions with his head for them to follow. There’s nobody else in the room and Sanghyuk’s desktop is paused on a video, indicating he’s been in here for some time. Hongbin catches a lot of yellow on the screen and doesn’t even have to look further to know he’s watching Despicable Me again.

The coats are lined up on the bed and Sanghyuk retrieves Hakyeon’s first and hands it over, along with a cream-colored scarf. "There's Pinot Noir in the kitchen. Top left cabinet by the stove. You can take it, if you want.”

“What?” Hongbin asks blankly.

“Wine? Toast? Romance?”

“Ro– why would–“ Hongbin’s eyes fly to Hakyeon’s. Thinking of it was one thing, but having his intentions bluntly said out loud was another.

“Sounds great,” Hakyeon answers instead, coat slung over his arm. He nods his thanks at Sanghyuk and leaves the room with a quick, “I’ll meet you at the front door,” directed at Hongbin.

Sanghyuk looks at Hongbin, unimpressed, and shoves his coat into his arms. “Why are you making him do all the work?”

Hongbin scoffs, but any rebuttal sticks in his throat because he can’t verbalize that he’s going to kiss Hakyeon in less than an hour. The reality of that thought has a swarm of butterflies erupting in his stomach. He makes to leave but curiosity has him pausing and asking, “Why are you not out there with everyone?”

A shrug is all Sanghyuk gives him and Hongbin doesn’t know what kind of answer he’s supposed to read from that. He hopes Sanghyuk will give an actual answer if he asks him again later. Wishing him a happy new year and saying, “good night,” Hongbin shrugs into his coat and walks to the front door to wait for Hakyeon. The time on his phone shows it is ten minutes after eleven. Fifty minutes left. His palms are a little clammy but his resolve is holding strong.

He is going to do this.

Hakyeon has his coat on and a dark bottle cradled in his arm when he arrives. “Ready to go?” he asks with a smile, and holds out his hand for Hongbin to take.

It’s cold outside as they walk along the sidewalk, briskly but not too hurried. Hongbin only lives a few blocks from Sanghyuk so he hadn’t packed a scarf or hat to save him from the elements. He tries to keep his teeth from chattering as Hakyeon steers them in the opposite direction of his apartment. “Where are we going?”

“My place. If that’s alright?” Apparently Hakyeon is not as classy as he thought he was.

“Sure.”

“It’s two stations away, so you can stay the night, or I can pay for a taxi to take you back. Whichever you want.” Hakyeon slows down their pace for a moment, thinking through logistics with the metro closing down after midnight. “Or we can go somewhere else, if that’s more convenient.”

“No,” Hongbin reassures, “your place is fine.” He can’t bring himself to think about anything past forty five minutes from now anyway. He’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it.

Hakyeon lets go of his hand when they reach the closest station and goes down the stairs. The platform is warm and Hongbin’s face gradually thaws out as they wait for the next train to arrive. Neither of them really say anything but that’s alright, its comfortable standing near each other and exchanging the occasional smile when their eyes meet. Thirty five minutes left, the clock on the reader board states. Hongbin swallows nervously and steps onto the train when it arrives.

Hakyeon’s place is nice, tidy and neat, and smells like citrus when Hongbin walks in after him. It’s slightly smaller than Hongbin’s but feels bigger because Hakyeon is clearly more organized and better at utilizing space than he is. Hakyeon turns a few lights on and deposits the bottle on the kitchen counter before rummaging through a cabinet to find two wine glasses. Wine is something Hongbin has never really acquired a taste for. He prefers eating grapes to drinking fermented ones, but if Hakyeon pours him a glass then he’ll drink every last drop of it.

“Give me a minute,” Hakyeon tells him before disappearing down a hallway.

Ten minutes left, according to the clock on the microwave. Hongbin paces from the kitchen to the living room a couple of times, settling in front of the windows and looking out at the city to distract himself. The view is only partially obstructed on the right by the building next to it, but the left side twinkles with the white, blue and green glow of company and storefront signs. He wonders how Jaehwan is doing. Has he found Sanghyuk’s hiding place or has he backed out already? His phone has no messages, which is a good sign, he hopes.

“I know we just got inside, but I thought it might be fun to light these up at midnight. Do you want to go up to the roof?” Hakyeon re-emerges with a bag in his hand, holding out a sparkler for explanation. They’re the shorter kind, ones that last less than a minute, but there’s a whole pack of them to play with. Tucked between his arm and torso is something red and knitted, and Hongbin has flashes of Hakyeon with red draped around his neck, blowing into the cold air.

He nods eagerly and follows Hakyeon back to the front door, slipping into his shoes and coat again and taking the wine and glasses carefully when they are handed to him.

The elevator brings them up to the top floor and Hakyeon leads them up a stairwell off to the side. He pauses in front of the roof access door and turns back to Hongbin, who has one foot on two different steps and has to look up at him. Wordlessly, Hakyeon unfolds the red scarf and before Hongbin can process what’s happening, it’s being looped around his neck and tucked into a knot in front of him. Hakyeon fusses over it for a moment, making sure Hongbin’s neck will be properly safe from the cold and tugging it up a bit to protect his ears.

“Pretty,” Hakyeon murmurs, out loud but to himself, hands adjusting the collar of Hongbin’s black coat, and then turns to open the door.

Seconds tick by and the cold air hits and helps Hongbin to remember to breathe, in and out and in again. The scarf smells like laundry soap and the same citrusy scent as the apartment, as Hakyeon. Breathing is a bad idea. His legs are jelly and his balance off-kilter as he climbs the last step and follows Hakyeon out onto the roof.

There are large planter boxes and trellises that are bare and waiting for spring, and they form a small pathway that leads to a sitting area. Hongbin manages to set the glasses and bottle down on the table without breaking anything and takes a moment to look around at the buildings and lights and re-center himself. It must be pretty there in the summer, when the sky stays purple for a while after sunset and the plants are in full bloom. The building he lives in has roof access but he’s never been up there. He wonders if it’s like this.

“Two minutes,” Hakyeon announces and sets a phone alarm to go off in a minute and fifty-five seconds. He gives Hongbin a sparkler before tugging him by the hand, away from the seating area and toward the railing. It’s chillier over here but the scarf keeps him warm. “Any last words you want to say to this year?”

He thinks back over the past twelve months but finds that nothing really stands out to him, aside from the last fifty-three days. “You were just okay,” he says to the air, the universe. “Let’s do better next year though, alright?”

“Let Hongbin’s game be successful,” Hakyeon adds.

“Let Hakyeon’s choreo be chosen,” Hongbin follows.

Hakyeon smiles at him and when there are only thirty seconds left in the year, he lights his sparkler and holds it out for Hongbin to use to light his own. The crackle of them coming to life is amplified by the quiet rooftop and Hongbin looks at his, holds it high in the air and waves it around and thinks that Hakyeon is classy after all. This is special and private and nothing Hongbin would have imagined fifty-three days ago when he woke up to an anonymous person claiming to have a nice ass. Four hundred people clearly knew better than him.

Hakyeon tries to spin and make a circle of light surround him but it doesn’t quiet work because the city lights are too bright around them. _Please let next year be spent with him,_ Hongbin thinks to the universe. If he has just that, then the next year would already be better than this one.

Hakyeon’s phone chimes.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

Hongbin takes a deep breath.

“Happy New Year!” Hakyeon raises his arms in the air to celebrate.

There are different shadows and lights flickering over his face every second from the sparkler, and his smile is wide and Hongbin’s first thought of the new year is that he likes him _so_ , so much. He’s beautiful and kind and being with him is effortless and easy and Hongbin wants to spend every New Year’s Eve like this. He reaches out with one hand and rests it on the back of Hakyeon’s neck, cold and exposed because the scarf can only cover it so much, curling his fingers around the soft strands of hair and nudging him forward just a little to show his intention.

Very slowly, a pleased smile grows on Hakyeon’s face, and it comforts Hongbin but also makes his heart pound twice as fast. “I thought you weren’t interested?”

“Someone changed my mind.”

“Oh,” Hakyeon breathes out and then lets the spent sparkler fall from his hand before stepping completely into Hongbin’s space, grasping onto the sides of his coat. Up close, they’re very nearly the same height, with only Hakyeon’s shoes making him just a bit taller. The smile is still on his face, but Hongbin forgets to take a breath because Hakyeon’s gaze shifts into something Hongbin’s only ever seen in those performance videos, and now it’s directed toward him.

After one, two heartbeats pass, Hongbin leans forward and kisses him.

He expects to feel something monumental like fireworks exploding in his stomach or the ground shaking beneath him, but all he feels is Hakyeon; all he is aware of is Hakyeon. The hands at his side are warm and tighten around his coat every time their lips find each other. He drops his own sparkler to the ground and cups Hakyeon’s face with both hands, feeling Hakyeon shiver and laugh against him because they’re cold. It doesn’t stop him from kissing Hongbin back when he resumes, though.

For a while, time is on their side and slows down without them noticing. The cold seeps in first, although they fight it off by pressing further into each other, and then the shouts from a group of people on the street below brings the rest of the world back into focus, and time speeds up again. They toast with the wine Sanghyuk had given them and Hongbin successfully avoids having to do an embarrassing love shot. The first hour of the new year passes and, still, they don’t leave the rooftop.

Hakyeon’s arms loop themselves around Hongbin’s neck and he sways back and forth, just smiling and looking at Hongbin like he’s happy and content. "Only an hour into the new year and I already have a boyfriend. Look at me go.”

 _Boyfriend_. Hongbin’s cheeks are already rosy from the cold but turn a bit brighter. He supposes that’s what he is now though. Hakyeon’s boyfriend.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist my ass.”

Hongbin laughs out loud. “That had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

“Pretty sure it had everything to do with it.” Hakyeon turns just a little, peering back to inspect himself. Hongbin resolutely shifts his eyes to the dark sky around them in order to avoid looking. “I think yours is nicer though. I’ve thought that since we first met up.”

Hongbin looks at him with horror. “At the office?”

Hakyeon nods and shrugs, as if to say it couldn’t be helped.

“I think I need to go home now.” Hongbin makes to leave but Hakyeon’s arms are still around his neck and its pathetic how easily Hakyeon is able to bring him in for a kiss.

“I think,” Hakyeon starts and lets Hongbin interrupt him with two, three more kisses before continuing, “that you should stay the night.”

Hongbin sucks in a breath and blinks a few times and then jumps because there’s a pinch on his ass. “You!”

“Me?” Hakyeon asks innocently.

“You are going to be trouble.”

 

 

 

 

“What do you mean you chickened out?!”

“I didn’t mean to!” Jaehwan wails into the phone. “I just couldn’t find a moment!”

“I told you–“ Hongbin cuts his words off when Hakyeon raises an eyebrow at the volume of his voice, before continuing to pull a tshirt over his head. The soft planes of his stomach disappear beneath the fabric and Hongbin marvels that he touched all of that just hours ago; woke up with an arm wrapped around it. What an unexpected thing to begin a new year with.

“Did you die?” Jaehwan’s voice reminds him that he’s still on the line.

“I think so,” Hongbin admits, though Jaehwan wouldn’t be able to understand why. There’s a clock on the nightstand next to him that says 10:00 in big numbers, making him yawn because he would still be sleeping if his phone hadn’t woken him. Hakyeon leaves the room and Hongbin hears the click of a light switch close by. “Did you spend midnight in the bathroom?”

“No.” Jaehwan is pouting, he can hear it through the speaker. “But Wonshik wouldn’t leave me alone, and every time I saw Sanghyuk he’d disappear. The universe hates me.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“I’m being real.”

“You can kiss him at any time, you know? Just because you didn’t do it last night, doesn’t mean you can’t do it today. Don’t make things more complicated than they need to be.”

“But it would have been more romantic last night.”

Hongbin sighs impatiently. “It’s not the time or the countdown that makes it romantic. It’s romantic because you’re kissing the person you like.”

“What would you even know?” Jaehwan scoffs.

Hakyeon pokes his head into the room, fringe damp at the edges, face looking dewy, and says before disappearing, “Extra toothbrush is in the cupboard. Help yourself to any of my clothes.”

“Was that Hakyeon?”

“No.”

“Why do you need clothes? Hongbin?”

“Go kiss Sanghyuk and leave me alone,” Hongbin quickly says into the phone and hangs up.

Hakyeon is pouring juice into two glasses when he makes it into the kitchen in a pair of joggers and tshirt from Hakyeon’s closet. It’s bright in the apartment, with the winter sun shining through the living room windows, and Hongbin can see the little decorations and plants he hadn’t noticed before. There’s a candle burning on an end table by the couch and the room smells like apples instead of citrus today.

“Morning,” Hongbin greets, because he hadn’t been able to do it earlier with Jaehwan despairing.

“Morning. Sleep well?”

“Very.” He takes one of the glasses offered to him. “Wish I still was.”

Hakyeon hops up onto the counter and swings his legs back and forth. “We can always take a nap later. You weren’t planning on working, were you?”

“No.”

“Good. I don’t plan on letting you go today.”

“That sounds ominous.”

Hongbin doesn’t expect one of Hakyeon’s legs to hook him from behind and pull him over until he’s flush to the counter in front of Hakyeon. The juice in his glass sloshes dangerously high but thankfully doesn’t spill. “You have a table for a reason,” he chides, hating the way his voice sounds flustered.

Hakyeon smiles and leans back on his hands. Somehow his leg tightens even more around Hongbin’s lower back, like a thorny vine or a koala clinging to a tree; dangerous and cute. “Do you want to sit at the table?”

He can’t meet Hakyeon’s eyes as he shakes his head in the negative, and meekly drinks his juice.

“I was thinking that brunch could be our first date–“

“Fancy,” Hongbin interrupts him and gets poked strongly in the side. His juice nearly spills again.

“ –and then we can take a nap,” Hakyeon continues. “You can plan out the rest of the day from there.”

“What if I want to go home?”

Hakyeon makes a face, nose scrunched and lips pinched together. “Your plans, I guess.”

“I’m kidding. I just wanted to see what you’d say.”

Hakyeon goes to poke him again but Hongbin sees it coming and arches out of the way.

“I don’t really have anything I want to do. We can play it by ear.” He puts his empty glass down and for lack of a better place to put his hands, rests them on Hakyeon’s thighs in front of him. Maybe it’s because he’s trapped against the counter or maybe it’s because it’s a new year now and he’s feeling introspective, but he says, “I’m glad you replied to Jaehwan’s tweet.”

Hakyeon smiles softly and reaches out with a hand to Hongbin’s cheek, thumb lightly brushing against it. “Even though your rejection embarrassed me?”

“To be fair, your tweet embarrassed me, so…”

“How was it embarrassing? It was just facts.”

Hongbin looks at him incredulously and Hakyeon stares back just as seriously.

“I’ll get you to admit it, someday.”

“Not today though.”

**Author's Note:**

> \+ thank you for reading ♡  
> \+ thank you to the mods for putting up with me ♡  
> \+ sanghyuk and jaehwan's subplot was unplanned but I'll be writing a mirrored side story for them to explain things  
> \+ wonshik and taekwoon will be in it too


End file.
